2007 Year In Review

Bobby Hamilton, the longtime NASCAR driver who won the 2001 Talladega 500 and was the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series champion, died Sunday of cancer, said Liz Allison, a family friend who co-hosted a radio show with Hamilton. He was 49.
Hamilton was at home with his family when he died, said...

Yvonne De Carlo, the beautiful star who achieved her greatest popularity on TV's slapstick comedy "The Munsters," has died. She was 84.
De Carlo died of natural causes Monday at the Motion Picture & Television facility in suburban Woodland Hills, California, longtime friend and television...

Art Buchwald, the Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist, made a career out of skewering Washington's elite, then won even wider fame when he chose to let himself die rather than fight for every ounce of life. Now he has had the last laugh.
Buchwald died of kidney failure at home Wednesday, surrounded...

Emiliano Mercado del Toro was born when Puerto Rico was still a Spanish colony and trained as a soldier the year World War I ended.
On Wednesday, having spent just a month as the world's oldest person, he died at his home on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, his grandniece, Dolores Martinez...

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized Monday after complications from his gruesome breakdown at last year's Preakness, ending an eight-month ordeal that prompted an outpouring of support across the country.
"We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on...

Barbara Gittings, a gay rights activist since the late 1950s, died Sunday. She was 74.
Gittings died after a lengthy fight with breast cancer, said Mark Segal, a friend and the publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News.
Gittings helped organize the New York City chapter of the Daughters of...

Dennis Johnson, the star NBA guard who was part of three championship teams and combined with Larry Bird in one of the great postseason plays, died Thursday after collapsing at the end of practice. He was 52.
Johnson, coach of the Austin Toros of the NBA Development League, was unconscious and...

In his 89 years, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. was a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, a Kennedy insider, and an influential thinker who helped define mainstream liberalism during the Cold War.
"(He had) enormous stamina and a kind of energy and drive which most people don't have, and it kept him...

Former U.S. Sen. Thomas Eagleton, who resigned as a vice presidential nominee in 1972 after it was revealed he had been hospitalized for depression, died Sunday, according to the office of Sen. Claire McCaskill.
The cause of death was not disclosed. Eagleton, 77, had suffered from a variety of...

Bowie Kuhn, the bespectacled lawyer who oversaw baseball's transformation from sport to a business of free agents making multimillion-dollar salaries, died Thursday. He was 80.
The former commissioner died at St. Luke's Hospital in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., following a short illness, spokesman...

Walter Turnbull, the founder of the famed Boys Choir of Harlem, died Friday, his brother said. He was 62.
Turnbull died in a hospital, said his brother, Horace Turnbull. He had suffered a stroke months earlier.
The choir, founded with 20 boys in the basement of a Harlem church in 1968, has...

Faustino Oramas, a popular traditional singer and among the last original members of the Buena Vista Social Club, died Tuesday of cancer. He was 95.
Cuba state television reported Tuesday night that acting president Raul Castro had sent a floral wreath to Oramas' funeral service earlier in the...

Eddie Robinson, the longtime Grambling coach who transformed a small, black college into a football power that sent hundreds of players to the NFL, has died. He was 88. The soft-spoken coach spent nearly 60 years at Grambling State University, where he set a standard for victories with 408 and...

Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," has died. He was 84.
Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit...

Legendary Hawaiian crooner Don Ho, known for his catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," has died, his publicist said. He was 76.
Publicist Donna Jung said the singer died Saturday morning of heart failure. He had suffered from heart problems for the past several years, and he had a pacemaker...

Former President Boris Yeltsin, who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, died Monday. He was 76.
Kremlin spokesman Alexander Smirnov confirmed Yeltsin's death, and Russian news agencies cited Sergei Mironov, head of the...

SAN DIEGO - Walter M. Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only man to fly on NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, has died. He was 84.
His family said he died of natural causes, David Mould, NASA press secretary in Washington, said Thursday. Mould said he had...

Bernard Gordon, a screenwriter blacklisted during Hollywood's anti-communist crusade in the 1950s, has died. He was 88.
Gordon died Friday at his Hollywood Hills home after a long battle with cancer, according to his daughter, Ellen Gordon.
"He was highly principled, scrupulously honest," his...

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.
Ron Godwin, the university...

Charles Nelson Reilly, the Tony Award winner who later became known for his ribald appearances on the "Tonight Show" and various game shows, has died. He was 76.
Reilly died Sunday in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, his partner, Patrick Hughes, told the New York Times.
Reilly...

Samuel Alexander Garrison III, who defended President Richard Nixon in impeachment hearings in 1974 and later became a gay activist, has died. He was 65.
Garrison died Sunday after a long battle with leukemia, said Mark Harris, his partner of 17 years.
Garrison was the deputy minority counsel...

Bill France Jr., who transformed NASCAR from a small Southern sport into a billion-dollar conglomerate during his 31 years as chairman, died Monday at his Daytona Beach, Fla., home, his family said. He was 74.
France, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1999, had been in poor health for much of the...

Former U.N. chief Kurt Waldheim, who was barred from the United States for two decades after revelations he belonged to a German army unit that committed World War II atrocities, died Thursday. He was 88.
Although it was never proved that Waldheim personally committed war crimes, he left public...

Rod Beck, an All-Star relief pitcher who wore a bushy mustache while earning 286 career saves, was found dead Saturday. He was 38.
Beck was found by police officers responding to a call to his home in suburban Phoenix, police department spokesman Andy Hill said Sunday. Foul play is not suspected...

Fashion designer Liz Claiborne, whose styles became a cornerstone of career women's wardrobes in the 1970s and 1980s, has died, the company she founded said Wednesday. She was 78.
The cause of her death on Tuesday was not immediately known.
Claiborne, who retired from the day-to-day...

Beverly Sills, the Brooklyn-born opera diva who was a global icon of can-do American culture with her dazzling voice, bubbly personality and management moxie in the arts world, died of cancer, her manager said. She was 78.
Weeks after being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, Sills died...

Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, died Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94.
Johnson, who suffered a stroke in 2002 that affected her ability to speak, returned home...

RALEIGH, N.C.–Tammy Faye Messner, who as Tammy Faye Bakker helped her husband, Jim, build a multimillion-dollar evangelism empire and then saw it collapse in disgrace, has died. She was 65.
Messner, who had battled colon cancer since 1996 that more recently spread to her lungs, died...

Hungarian-born playwright and director George Tabori, a legend in Germany's postwar theater world whose avant-garde works confronted anti-Semitism, has died, the Berliner Ensemble said Tuesday. He was 93.
Tabori, who as recently as three years ago dreamed of returning to stage to play the title...

Talk show host Tom Snyder, whose smoke-filled interviews were a staple of late night television, has died after a struggle with leukemia. He was 71.
Snyder died Sunday in San Francisco from complications associated with leukemia, his longtime producer and friend Mike Horowicz told The Associated...

Merv Griffin, the big band-era crooner turned impresario who parlayed the American television game shows "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" into a multimillion-dollar empire, died Sunday. He was 82.
Griffin died of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his the family that was released by...

Phil Rizzuto, the Hall of Fame shortstop during the Yankees' dynasty years and beloved by a generation of fans for exclaiming "Holy cow!" as a broadcaster, died Tuesday. He was 89.
His death was confirmed by the Yankees. Rizzuto had been in declining health for several years and was living at a...

Leona Helmsley, the hotelier who went to prison as a tax cheat and was reviled as the "queen of mean," died Monday at age 87.
Helmsley died of heart failure at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn., said her publicist, Howard Rubenstein.
Already experienced in real estate before her marriage,...

Pierre Messmer, a member of the French Resistance who was the country's prime minister from 1972 to 1974, has died at age 91, former President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday.
Messmer died Wednesday afternoon at Val-de-Grace hospital in Paris, according to the French daily Le Figaro.
Messmer...

Luciano Pavarotti, whose vibrant high C's and ebullient showmanship made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar, died Thursday. He was 71.
His manager, Terri Robson, told the AP in an e-mail statement...

Jane Wyman won an Oscar for her role as a deaf rape victim in the film "Johnny Belinda" and she probably will be best remembered for her portrayal of a power-mad winery owner in TV's "Falcon Crest."
But her greatest distinction may have been refusing to kiss and tell about her love life,...

Lois Maxwell, who starred as Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies, has died, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Sunday. She was 80.
The Canadian-born actress starred alongside Sean Connery in the first James Bond movie, "Dr. No," in 1962 as the secretary to M, the head of the secret...

As a spiritual guide to followers worldwide, Sri Chinmoy spread a message of peace through his lectures, his writings, his meetings with world leaders like Pope Paul VI and Nelson Mandela.
The charismatic but quirky Chinmoy did not stop there: There was weightlifting -- followers claimed the...

Joey Bishop, the stone-faced comedian who found success in nightclubs, television and movies but became most famous as a member of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack, has died at 89.
He was the group's last surviving member. Peter Lawford died in 1984, Sammy Davis Jr. in 1990, Dean Martin in 1995, and...

Porter Wagoner, the rhinestone-clad Grand Ole Opry star who helped launch the career of Dolly Parton by hiring her as his duet partner, died Sunday. He was 80.
Wagoner, who had survived an abdominal aneurysm in 2006, was hospitalized again this month and his publicist disclosed he had lung...

Robert Goulet, the handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in "Camelot" launched an award-winning stage and recording career, has died. He was 73.
The singer died Tuesday morning in a Los Angeles hospital while awaiting a lung transplant, said Goulet spokesman Norm Johnson.
He had...

George Osmond, father of Donny and Marie Osmond and patriarch to the family's singing group, The Osmond Brothers, died Tuesday. He was 90.
Family spokesman Kevin Sasaki said Osmond died at his home in Provo, Utah. Because he had not been ill, he likely died from natural causes incident to his...

Dick Nolan, the former coach of the San Francisco 49ers and the father of current coach Mike Nolan, died Sunday, the 49ers said. He was 75.
Dick Nolan, a former NFL defensive back who also coached the New Orleans Saints, had been in declining health with Alzheimer's disease and prostate cancer...

Ian Smith, the last prime minister of white-ruled Rhodesia, whose attempts to resist black rule dragged the country now known as Zimbabwe into isolation and civil war, has died, according to a family friend. He was 88.
Smith died Tuesday at a clinic near the South African city of Cape Town,...

Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.
Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years,...

Musician Carlos Valdes, a Cuban native whose conga playing made him a legend among Latin jazz percussionists, has died. He was 81.
Valdes died Tuesday night of complications from emphysema in Cleveland, where he had been hospitalized since Nov. 11, said Charles Carlini, a New York-based concert...

Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.
Turner died at his San Marcos home, Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group...

Dan Fogelberg, the singer and songwriter whose hits "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne" helped define the soft-rock era, died Sunday at his home in Maine after battling prostate cancer. He was 56.
His death was announced in a statement by Anna Loynes of the Solters & Digney public...

Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign rally, aides said.
The death of the 54-year-old charismatic former prime minister threw the campaign for the Jan. 8 election into chaos and created...

Al Oerter was destined to become an athlete, although he often wondered what he might have been if not for a chance meeting with a discus.
"I could throw a baseball, a football or a golf ball a country mile," Oerter told the Associated Press in an interview last year. "It was just easy to throw...

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